Find Your Way Out of Addiction

In my energy healing practice, many people come to me for help with breaking various addictions, be it food, alcohol, drugs, etc. Sometimes they’re frustrated and ashamed because they feel they don’t have the discipline to just stop their addiction. They wonder why they’re always, as one client told me, “taking the easy way out”.

They are not taking the easy way out.

Other than keeping the body's organs functioning, one of the primary functions of the human brain – which has developed over millions of years – is to keep one safe and secure. The brain is all about survival. Yes, there are people trained at an early age to save their nickels and dimes, and to look toward the future so that when they’re old and sick they have a nest egg. That’s not the kind of survival mechanism we’re referring to here.

There are mechanisms within the brain which continuously scan the environment, looking for danger in the moment.

In order to slow that mechanism down a bit so we can feel comfort and safety, we find something that can stimulate us and take our attention away from the danger.

Let’s take an addiction that most everyone can relate to, the addiction to sugar. When you eat that piece of dessert, candy or chocolate, you feel that wonderful flavor surge burst in your mouth – it gives you comfort and joy, and it helps you forget your fears for a moment.

There’s also a sequence of chemical reactions that take place. Again, I’ll use an example many people can relate to, the addiction to chocolate. Most chocoholics would rather have 70% than 85% chocolate. The reason is because 85% doesn’t have enough sugar in it. Sure, you get a bang from it; but the brain creates extra chemicals with the addition of more sugar, so it doesn’t have the same impact. It does not provide enough glucose to divert your attention from the basic realities of life.

When you eat the 70% chocolate, it provides a more powerful surge of glucose and creates a vibration which temporarily blinds you from your concerns in relationship to your environment. It allows you to feel safe for the moment, almost like a child being hugged and assured by the parent that they’re going to be okay. But the brain demands more assurances, and this is where the addiction takes place: a little bit doesn’t satisfy you anymore. Now you need to have twice as much, until you’re consuming it continuously.

I believe all addictions are similar. I also believe addictions take place because of our cultures on this planet.

We don’t believe in the “I am”. If you speak in the terminology of “I am”, “me”, or “this is how I see it”, if you use the word “I” in a conversation three times or more, then people think you’re arrogant and conceited. So, most people are then forced to either perceive the “we” and exclude the “I am”. We do not acknowledge the self, so we always feel empty.

When we don’t acknowledge the self, then over time our brains need to come up with justification of why we won’t acknowledge the beauty of self, of our own existence. Your brain then draws upon ancient records, which, of course, say you’re unworthy. You see every error you’ve ever made, and there’s constant persecution of self.

Let's say you get home from a day at work that hasn’t been the smoothest, and you have the junk food, the alcohol, the drugs, the internet, the hobby that has turned into an obsession. The reality is that these addictions feel good, and for a moment (at least while we’re doing it) we can feel some degree of ecstasy or diversion from our reality.

Ecstasy is the promise of life, as far as for our physical body. We can look at it as one of the core reasons of our existence: to achieve ecstasy. And all we need to do is open our mouth, take a bite and chew, and for a moment we can feel that it. The only problem is that once the body experiences ecstasy, it demands more. And if we do not have self-worth within us, every single one of us is addicted on one thing or another, whether we realize it or not.

To overcome any form of addiction, the key is self-worth and dignity.

If you can muster within yourself beauty and awe, you can overcome addiction. If you don’t have the self-esteem, you are vulnerable to addiction. It’s very close to impossible to break an addiction without having a degree of self-esteem for oneself. We’re handicapped in that because our cultures demand of us that we see ourselves as unworthy of the skin we’re in. This is where religion plays a key role: you must earn your way into the good grace of God.

God didn’t create the universe in order to toy with its beings and torture them if they’re not totally obedient.

Let’s use, as an example, that God created all life on this world as sexual beings; but if we partake, we’ll be kicked out of the kingdom, be cast into a burning inferno and be punished forever. Long after the universe is gone, you will still be in that pit burning. People who run around with holy books persecuting people in the name of God are addicted to the lust of persecution, and it is because they have been taught they are unworthy. They must justify the pleasure they receive through the act of persecution, so they hijack God. This is their addiction.

At the core, the cause of all addictions is our perception of unworthiness and the perceived inability to see the miracle of our creation.

If we’re to overcome our anger, rage and persecution toward and of each other, we need to allow ourselves to be in absolute awe with our journey. That means we need to let the ancient ways go, the ancient perceptions of Creation. We need to stand upright, look in the mirror and see this beautiful, beautiful creation that we all are. Until then, we will all be addicted on one thing or another, or many things at the same time.

In general, when we get rid of one addiction, we begin another; and then we perceive we’ve overcome addiction. In many instances, when somebody perceives they’ve overcome an addiction, they start messing with other people. I've known many former smokers who begin to go to war with other smokers, and make them feel bad that they’re incapable of overcoming it; same with a lot of ex-alcoholics I’ve met.

And let’s say you’re an alcoholic or drug addict, and through a church you’re able to let go of that addiction; what frequently happens is you will then have absolute fanaticism for whichever religion you perceive freed you from it. What you really did was replace the addiction with a much more aggressive addiction. At least if I’m a heroin addict, I don’t try to get you addicted; but if I go to a clinic that’s run by an evangelical church, go through their indoctrination and am able to let go of the heroin, then my mission in life will become to pick up the religious sword, condemn anyone who is not like me, and do everything I can to drag other people into the temple which has saved me. I didn’t overcome addiction – I overcame heroin, perhaps, but I fell victim to another addiction.

If you get in a conversation or debate with people like this, no matter what logic you use, they’ll just run right over you. This is because it’s an addiction. An addiction can’t see anything, except for whatever is causing the dopamine to flow in the body. An addiction will protect itself instinctively, since in one way or another it protects us from truth or gives us the perception of comfort and safety.
Fanaticism does that to people – it’s an addiction.

The result of addictions is that higher levels of dopamine and other chemicals are created within the brain. This is actually the addiction: finding a way to increase greater levels of natural chemicals in the brain, without realizing that is what we are doing. This is one articulation of addiction.

We can create higher levels of brain chemistries that deal with our emotions much easier by learning to feel our own existence and to stand in awe with that existence.

At Apex Energy Masters, over the years we have assisted many people in standing in awe with their existence through our energy healing work.

Be at Peace.